The Apple Vision Pro wasn’t the only new hardware announced at Apple’s WWDC keynote event this Monday. The company also introduced a few new Mac models: a new 15” MacBook Air, an upgraded Mac Studio, and the long-awaited Apple silicon Mac Pro. Powering the freshly minted top of Apple’s Mac line is a brand-new chip: the M2 Ultra.
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WWDC 2023: Mac Hardware Roundup
WWDC 2023: New FaceTime Features Coming This Fall
FaceTime is getting more attention in iOS 17 than it’s seen in quite a while, with a number of new features announced at yesterday’s WWDC keynote. All of these changes are coming to the iPad and Mac as well, and even tvOS has been shown some love.
tvOS 17 will include a brand-new FaceTime app, which will connect with an iPhone running iOS 17 to use as a camera. All you’ll have to do is place your iPhone in front of the TV, with the camera facing your couch, then sit back and take your FaceTime calls on your TV screen. The iPhone will use Apple’s Center Stage technology to keep the frame centered and focused on you, or expand it if someone else joins you on the couch. This feature also integrates with Apple SharePlay to enable you to watch a movie or TV show simultaneously with those on your FaceTime call.
Distribute Your App to More Users With Setapp [WWDC Sponsor]
Developers have been clamoring for alternatives for the App Store since the beginning, frustrated by the commissions they pay Apple, shifting app review standards, and the lack of trial versions. The thing is, developers already have another fantastic way to distribute their apps. It’s Setapp.
Check out Setapp today. Developed by the team at MacPaw and released in 2017, Setapp has been offering Mac, iOS, and web apps to users for one flat subscription price for five years. It’s a fantastic way to sell your apps and a terrific source of predictable monthly income for developers with a monthly commission that’s as low as 10%.
Everybody wins with Setapp. Developers have a simple, efficient way to distribute their apps, and users get hassle-free access to a hand-picked selection of over 240 of the very best apps made for macOS, iOS, and the web, including recent additions like Craft, Curio, VicCap, Replica, and PopClip.
For developers, Setapp makes it easy to get up and running quickly. They take care of payment processing, update mechanism, marketing, and support. When you offer your app through Setapp, you also get the benefit of their machine learning-based personalized app recommendation system, smart search, and curated collections, like Lifestyle, Creativity, Developer Tools, and Writing & Blogging.
With Setapp, developers enjoy 90% of the proceeds of user subscriptions. 70% is paid out based on how many people use a developer’s app, with the other 20% paid out based on which developers brought subscribers to Setapp. Moreover, developers can sell their apps anywhere else they’d like, including the App Store or their own website.
So, visit Setapp today to learn more about how it can expand your audience with customers who are looking for the best new ways to power their projects.
Our thanks to Setapp for sponsoring our WWDC coverage this year.
2023 Apple Design Award Winners Revealed
Two weeks ago, Apple announced the finalists for the 2023 Apple Design Awards: 36 apps and games in six categories: Inclusivity, Delight and Fun, Interaction, Social Impact, Visuals and Graphics, and Innovation.
Last evening, at an outdoor event on the stage built outside Caffè Macs for yesterday’s WWDC Keynote, the company announced two winners (one app and one game) in each category for a total of twelve 2023 Apple Design Award winners. Following the announcements, developers gathered in Caffè Macs for a reception and had a chance to see the Vision Pro for themselves at the Steve Jobs Theater.
Congratulations to all of this year’s Apple Design Award winners:
Inclusivity
- Universe — Website Builder by Universe Exploration Company
- stitch. by Lykke Studios
Delight and Fun
- Duolingo by Duolingo, Inc.
- Afterplace by Evan Kice
Interaction
Social Impact
Visuals and Graphics
- Any Distance by Any Distance Inc.
- Resident Evil Village by CAPCOM Co., Ltd.
Innovation
- SwingVision: A.I. Tennis App by SwingVision Inc.
- MARVEL SNAP by Second Dinner
We’ll have more 2023 Apple Design Award coverage soon, so stay tuned.
You can follow all of our WWDC coverage through our WWDC 2023 hub or subscribe to the dedicated WWDC 2023 RSS feed.
WWDC 2023: StandBy for iPhone
This fall, iOS 17 will introduce a brand new viewing mode for iPhone, but it will be quite familiar to most Apple Watch users. StandBy is enabled automatically when you turn your iPhone on its side while it’s charging, and functions nearly identically to Nightstand mode on the Apple Watch.
Nightstand mode has been around since all the way back in watchOS 2 (I covered it in my very first watchOS review in 2015), and exists as a way to view the time in the middle of the night just by bumping your nightstand while an Apple Watch is charging on it. Just like the new StandBy mode, the Apple Watch must be charging on its side, thus placing the screen at an ideal angle to be read from your bed without having to sit up or search for your device in the dark.
WWDC 2023: A First Look at Messages in iOS 17
iOS 17 is coming this fall, and Apple has once again directed a significant amount of attention to one of the iPhone’s most popular apps: Messages. This year we’re getting another round of minor UI tweaks, most notably shifting the positioning of iMessage apps again: they will now pop up in a new full-screen overlay. The two-page overlay starts with your most frequently used iMessage apps, which is where you’ll find Camera and Photos. Swiping the first page up will reveal any further apps you have installed beyond your top six.
WWDC 2023: Apple Publishes Keynote Video
In a packed WWDC keynote, Apple raced through many impressive additions to their hardware and software lineup, including a new 15” MacBook Air, an upgraded Mac Studio, and an all-new Apple Silicon Mac Pro. Significant changes are coming to watchOS 10, and Widgets are getting super-powered across all major platforms. But the star of show came in a rare One More Thing-style announcement: the Apple Vision Pro.
We’ll be posting coverage on all this and more in the coming hours and days, but in the meantime you can see it all for yourself in the keynote video on Apple’s Events site or on YouTube.
Apple is also hosting the keynote presentation in higher quality on Apple Podcasts, where you can choose between video or audio versions.
You can follow all of our WWDC coverage through our WWDC 2023 hub or subscribe to the dedicated WWDC 2023 RSS feed.
Last Week, on Club MacStories: Our WWDC Travel Home and Lock Screens and Ben McCarthy’s Development Desk Setup
Because Club MacStories now encompasses more than just newsletters, we’ve created a guide to the past week’s happenings:
MacStories Weekly: Issue 371
- Federico’s WWDC travel Home Screen
- John’s WWDC travel Home Screens and Lock Screen
- Obsidian developer Ben McCarthy’s desk setup
- Plus:
- App Debuts
- Highlights from the Club MacStories+ Discord
- Interesting links from around the web
- A sneak peek at what’s next on AppStories
- and more
MacStories Unwind: Travel Stories and Games
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This week on MacStories Unwind, Federico and I share our preparations for traveling to California for WWDC, I recommend Laya’s Horizon, an iPhone game, and Federico has more thoughts on Tears of the Kingdom.
Links and Show Notes
John’s Pick:
- Laya’s Horizon by Snowman
MacStories Unwind+
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